MEN & MENSTRUATION
From getting sanitary napkins in black polyethene to not being allowed to cut nails during periods, let’s agree we have seen it all. My body which was intricately designed by God himself, why would people not allow me to seek his blessings in his own home, when I’m bleeding? Against all these flabbergasting fallacies and odds, women have still demolished patriarchy and put a period on these myths. However, this was such a long journey that, women have just recently learnt about the harsh realities about menstruation, that men cannot be blamed completely.
To understand what really goes into the minds of our ‘stronger counterparts’, I conducted a set of interviews across all backgrounds and diversities. One of my friends scared the living daylights out of me, when he revealed that his grandfather didn’t even know about periods until he had his prostate operation and was forced to wear a pad to manage the excessive bleeding, on investigating the reason behind this, it is because majority of women didn’t really raise their voices.
To maintain their docility and being the only connecting threads of the family, women neglect themselves. 'Grinding poverty, forces my mother to use cloth instead of pads’, is what was answered by my driver’s son. The skin on my body felt so cold and numb when a 20-year-old shopkeeper from my building, when asked about periods, asked if it is the time when women bleed blue-colored blood, as shown in ads.
We are living under such scrutiny of social media, that so many misconceptions are born from here, which sometimes makes us question our own existing knowledge, so people with false images about menstruation cannot be blamed wholly. Some men don’t even know the reason behind ‘that time of the month’, 15% of people in my interview thought its due to damage of fallopian tubes, 30% thought it's because of rupturing of ovaries and what not.
They never felt the need to dig deep into this topic, as this never really affected them, which is understandable. However, if only everybody has the right-unfiltered knowledge about a process which is happening with 17% women worldwide, while you are reading this, life would be easy for women. Furthermore, this will not only help in breaking stigma attached to women, but if men educate themselves about menstruation, they will be able to understand the female body better.